Athletics eye good outing

NINE athletes will carry Fiji's hope at the Oceania Athletics Championships in Cook Islands next week.

Team manager Paul Yee said they aimed for a good outing despite the fact that athletes from Australia and New Zealand would also compete.

"The lone female athlete is Younis Bese who will be competing in the 100m and 200m events," he said.

"Last week she did very well at the National Championship at the ANZ Stadium in Suva where she clocked 11.9s against very strong winds.

"Also in the sprints category, Banuve Tabakaucoro will be aiming to improve his personal best time and also improve on the time he set at the Pacific Mini Games in Wallis and Futuna last year."

Batinisavu Uluiyata and Epeli Batisila, who will compete in the middle distance events, are also top contenders for medals.

He said they had been training under the guidance of Jone Delai at the ANZ Stadium and had been running fast times and they too would aim for personal bests.

"Lepani Naivalu and Apolosi Ratumudu are the other two runners who are travelling with us and while for the others, everything is paid by Oceania, these two athletes are arranging their own fares and spending money."

In the field events, Leslie Copeland would be a top contender for the javelin gold medal while Waisale Dausoko would aim to stamp his mark in the long jump.

"Copeland continues to throw consistently and since he has no competition in Fiji, he hopes to improve his throws with better competition at the Oceania Championships.

"Waisale jumped 7.84m twice but they were both over the board and the one counted, was at 7.45m and had he jumped a further 10cm ahead, he would have qualified for the World Junior Championships."

The team leaves for the Cook Islands on Sunday while the competition begins on Monday.